Quantum Atlas 10K and 10K II

[Kunal]

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I have the chance to buy some SCSI gear at a knock down price, although my knowledge or SCSI is quite minimal.
Is there a large difference between the Quantum Atlas 10K (18Gb) and the 10K II (18Gb)? I understand that they are both U160, and 10,000RPM, so what is the real difference?

I have two choices, either to buy a Adaptec 29160N U160 adapter with a Atlas 10K II 18Gb drive for £177, or to buy two Atlas 10K I's (both 18Gb) for £155. For the second choice I aim to buy a cheap U160 controller of Ebay.

Any one have any links to a comparison of these two drives?

Lastly is there a recognizable difference between Ultra2 and Ultra3 drives? And is the difference noticeable/worth the money with Ultra2/Ultra3 SCSI RAID?( I ask this as I've seen LOADS of Ultra2 drives at dirt cheap prices, and Ultra2 RAID cards but have stuck to looking at U3/160. If the difference between 2 and 3/160 isnt large enough to warant the xtra cost, I might as well buy some U2 drives and a RAID card)

 

[Jon]

Not sure as to the difference between the two drives but I would go with the the II as I'm sure it has something to be desired over the first line.

I would go for two drives and a cheap controller. Tekram makes excellent SCSI devices much cheaper than most others.

As far as going for U2 or U3-160...good call. Problem is, you're PCI bus is only going to allow a maximum of 133MBps through it regardless so U3-160 will never reach its maximum burst throughput. U2 is 80MBps, I believe, so it could handle that no problem.

I guess, if it were me and I was going to go through the trouble and expense of SCSI, I would want the latest and SCSI3-U160 is (somwhat...there's U333 now) the latest.

 

[Kunal]

I've found a Tekram DC-390 U3W U160 SCSI card which seems to be going cheap on eBay, anyone had any experience with it?

 

[Kunal]

Also....

Wouldn't overclocking aid the SCSI hard drives as it the higher FSB/PCI speeds would allow higher throughput?(Upto a certain point, stablity being the stopping factor).

 

[Jon]

Yes.

Like IDE, however, data can get scrambled once that PCI bus gets too far out of spec. I've never really got enough information to determine whether or not IDE or SCSI is more accepting of out of spec buses either. Probably the same.

 

[Kunal]

On another forum, there was a thread about hard drive stability with FSB OC'ing, and the results we're between 145 and 168 i believe. SCSI's on a pci card didnt fair to well after 160, although I dont expect to go above 150. I'll be unlocking the chip and taking it up after that.... ahh expenses gonna need another power supply soon.